Giant Crab harvesting: setting up an in universe profession/game opening

[TrexPushups]

So I am kicking around the idea of starting a sandbox style campaign for some friends of mine and I thought it would be nice to start with them in the middle of Crab fishing.

So I was thinking the village/town lures the crabs to the beach and then has a team of 4-5 people kill them and pays per pound of edible crab.

How much should I pay per crab (I can roll percent dice to vary the weight and thus price).

Any ideas on what kind of structures would be erected for these crab hunts?

After that I can start feeding them rumors until they leave town or if they don't want to do that have adventures/problems come to them.

[Gritmonger]

I'm picturing giant Crabbing vessels, akin to the whaling vessels of old.

Or a giant killing pit with bait set up in an inlet. If a Giant Crab is Large, and crab meat sells on average for thirty dollars a pound - crab canning is going to have to be good business or it isnt worth it to bring in that many tons of crab meat at once without an immediate market. Say you get 1000 lbs of crab meat, usable, from a giant crab, and you could get roughly 1000 gp off of that retail - wholesale is anywhere from 50% to 20%, so lets say you can get 300 gold wholesale from the processing of one giant crab - you have to pay butchers and canners or other kinds of processors. So lets say your production cost is 25 gp, before the adventurers/megacrabbers. You could probably go as high as 50 gp and still make decent profit per giant crab for high quality, less for lower quality or smaller crabs, since your processing cost is more than likely a fixed cost.

[TrexPushups]

I'm picturing giant Crabbing vessels, akin to the whaling vessels of old.

Or a giant killing pit with bait set up in an inlet. If a Giant Crab is Large, and crab meat sells on average for thirty dollars a pound - crab canning is going to have to be good business or it isnt worth it to bring in that many tons of crab meat at once without an immediate market. Say you get 1000 lbs of crab meat, usable, from a giant crab, and you could get roughly 1000 gp off of that retail - wholesale is anywhere from 50% to 20%, so lets say you can get 300 gold wholesale from the processing of one giant crab - you have to pay butchers and canners or other kinds of processors. So lets say your production cost is 25 gp, before the adventurers/megacrabbers. You could probably go as high as 50 gp and still make decent profit per giant crab for high quality, less for lower quality or smaller crabs, since your processing cost is more than likely a fixed cost.

According to the DM pdf giant crabs are medium. So probably 180-230 pounds a piece.

[Gritmonger]

According to the DM pdf giant crabs are medium. So probably 180-230 pounds a piece.

AFB, so thanks - changes the equations some - a lot of that is going to be chitin, so maybe 100lbs per crab max, reduces some processing cost and time per crab - at roughly 1/10 of prior calculations, it would be 1-5 gp per crab bounty, depending on size and quality. Need to process more crabs. Look at a side business doing something with the chitin.

[TrexPushups]

I'm picturing giant Crabbing vessels, akin to the whaling vessels of old.

Or a giant killing pit with bait set up in an inlet. If a Giant Crab is Large, and crab meat sells on average for thirty dollars a pound - crab canning is going to have to be good business or it isnt worth it to bring in that many tons of crab meat at once without an immediate market. Say you get 1000 lbs of crab meat, usable, from a giant crab, and you could get roughly 1000 gp off of that retail - wholesale is anywhere from 50% to 20%, so lets say you can get 300 gold wholesale from the processing of one giant crab - you have to pay butchers and canners or other kinds of processors. So lets say your production cost is 25 gp, before the adventurers/megacrabbers. You could probably go as high as 50 gp and still make decent profit per giant crab for high quality, less for lower quality or smaller crabs, since your processing cost is more than likely a fixed cost.


AFB, so thanks - changes the equations some - a lot of that is going to be chitin, so maybe 100lbs per crab max, reduces some processing cost and time per crab - at roughly 1/10 of prior calculations, it would be 1-5 gp per crab bounty, depending on size and quality. Need to process more crabs. Look at a side business doing something with the chitin.

Specialized armor manufacturing?
Crabs have dex 14 so that crab shell should make good shields or a chain shirt equivalent. As they rock an AC 15.

I was wondering if gentle repose could be used by players or NPCs as a way to keep in the freshness during transport.

Maybe the crab company could be called Copper eyes Crabs. Or the blind crab consortium as you would want to wrap the copper peice in linen to keep it on the eye stalk. 10 days without decay could get you all the way to market with maximum freshness.

[SharkForce]

use a few traps to hold them in place and stab them from reach. lets you get more people around them, and they can't fight back that way.

(hmmm... can't remember, can warlocks cast sleep?)

[Naanomi]

I had a fun campaign set in a valley where the economy was based on giant bee honey and the early level adventure harvesting and protecting the hives

[TrexPushups]

I had a fun campaign set in a valley where the economy was based on giant bee honey and the early level adventure harvesting and protecting the hives

And you just filled in another hex. The two villages trade with each other. But oh no someone is raiding the trade route, or someone found a cave with gold but was run off by X

[SharkForce]

oh, and one of my favourite tricks for preserving stuff: you use a spell that temporarily conjures something. you put that stuff into a jar with whatever you want to preserve packed as tightly as possible, and seal the jar (wax would be handy for that... hello, giant bees! :P ) can't recall offhand what would be a good option for conjured material in 5e (the setting in question was a 3.x psionic setting, and as such simply used minor creation, which is a level 1 psionic power. it was also used to vacuum pack grain silos and such).

lastly, you wait for the conjured material to disappear, and you have vacuum-packed goods.

also, isn't one of the options in prestidigitation to chill things? failing that, you should be able to freeze water into ice blocks with cantrips and keep them cold.

[DireSickFish]

You could have a bay set up for it or an artificial bay. Underwater structures are set up so that when the crabs follow the wall it leads them into the enclosure but when they follow the wall to leave they end up stuck in the corner. Much like a minnow or crab trap irl. Then at low tied the crab hunters go out and take down the big ones (possibly releasing small ones or ones with eggs hanging on them) for profit. The bay is bated with dead fish and such so the crabs want to come up into the bay area.

But just leaving food out can bring in all sorts of things. If you want to throw a challenge at them or want to get them off of crab fishing make water trolls or some such hazard be caught int he bay. Perhaps they come to find there catch has all been slaughtered and eaten before they get there. Maybe a druid is upset at the "unfair" traps and has been busting them out every night.

Lost of opportunities for adventure, I think you have a good base idea. As for price I'm not really sure. I tend to be stingy with gold and don't have a good grasp on what kind of gold level you want with the game.

[TrexPushups]

oh, and one of my favourite tricks for preserving stuff: you use a spell that temporarily conjures something. you put that stuff into a jar with whatever you want to preserve packed as tightly as possible, and seal the jar (wax would be handy for that... hello, giant bees! :P ) can't recall offhand what would be a good option for conjured material in 5e (the setting in question was a 3.x psionic setting, and as such simply used minor creation, which is a level 1 psionic power. it was also used to vacuum pack grain silos and such).

lastly, you wait for the conjured material to disappear, and you have vacuum-packed goods.

also, isn't one of the options in prestidigitation to chill things? failing that, you should be able to freeze water into ice blocks with cantrips and keep them cold.


You could have a bay set up for it or an artificial bay. Underwater structures are set up so that when the crabs follow the wall it leads them into the enclosure but when they follow the wall to leave they end up stuck in the corner. Much like a minnow or crab trap irl. Then at low tied the crab hunters go out and take down the big ones (possibly releasing small ones or ones with eggs hanging on them) for profit. The bay is bated with dead fish and such so the crabs want to come up into the bay area.

But just leaving food out can bring in all sorts of things. If you want to throw a challenge at them or want to get them off of crab fishing make water trolls or some such hazard be caught int he bay. Perhaps they come to find there catch has all been slaughtered and eaten before they get there. Maybe a druid is upset at the "unfair" traps and has been busting them out every night.

Lost of opportunities for adventure, I think you have a good base idea. As for price I'm not really sure. I tend to be stingy with gold and don't have a good grasp on what kind of gold level you want with the game.

I don't mind my players getting paid as there will be no magic mart. I want them to be able to afford to hire npcs and build keeps etc.

Not off crabbing but having crabbing be a good source for the town to get new low level characters for them to hire as they grow in power and wealth is peachy to me.

I just want the numbers to make sense for the crabbing to be able to support a town with a decent port that will serve as a good starting town.

Being able to start the game with a enemy crab encounter is a huge plus. Maybe the cages have been broken by a few trident carrying skeletons. Leading to the town calling a meeting to find someone to figure out who is behind the skeleton attack.

[Naanomi]

Halfling Rangers riding crabs that got too big, herding other crabs?

[Gritmonger]

Person trying to establish a crab meat hegemony hiring an ocean aligned druid who has the wrong impression about their employer?

Other ocean creatures pushing out the crabs?

[Slipperychicken]

oh, and one of my favourite tricks for preserving stuff: you use a spell that temporarily conjures something. you put that stuff into a jar with whatever you want to preserve packed as tightly as possible, and seal the jar (wax would be handy for that... hello, giant bees! :P ) can't recall offhand what would be a good option for conjured material in 5e (the setting in question was a 3.x psionic setting, and as such simply used minor creation, which is a level 1 psionic power. it was also used to vacuum pack grain silos and such).

lastly, you wait for the conjured material to disappear, and you have vacuum-packed goods.

One could do this perfectly with the conjurer wizard's "minor conjuration" power. From level 2, it lets the wizard summon an object up to 10lb or "3 feet to a side", at will (but only one at a time, maximum one hour, dismiss whenever). I believe one could use it to summon a 10lb mass of wax or honey (the latter being 3.16 liters (http://convert-to.com/246/honey-amounts-converter.html) of delicious, natural preservative), and then quickly dismiss it for vacuum-creating purposes.

Also, good find, SharkForce. I've never heard that trick before.

[Agmundr]

as a professional crab fisherman i would say that the size doesn't change how you fish for them, it will just change what size of gear you use. so you will just take the boat out, bait your pots and launch them over the side. you would then haul the gear up using a block and line and 4 or so people pulling on it since it would not be a powered block. pot comes up dump the crab onto deck, flip them over onto their backs and they are more or less helpless, sort then toss what you want to keep into the hold. crab speed depends on species, king crab are slower than hell but strong, if one actually manages to pinch you that just means you are slower than molasses.

the only giant crab i would refuse to fish would be dungeness crab. those guys are faster and meaner than hell. just imagining giant versions of those... *shudders*

[Agmundr]

crab meat doesnt keep well. it turns poisonous shortly after death, so you would have to cook them right after butchering. the meat itself is like jelly until cooked. also crab are amazingly fragile, king crab shells crack very easily and you have to be very gentle/ careful while handling them, whereas the smaller tanner species are not as fragile(still pretty fragile) and react faster.

so please bear all that in mind when thinking of ways to harvest said crab. then again giant magic crab could be insanely tough monstrosities and most of the above wouldn't apply but who knows, its your setting do as you will with it.

[TrexPushups]

crab meat doesnt keep well. it turns poisonous shortly after death, so you would have to cook them right after butchering. the meat itself is like jelly until cooked. also crab are amazingly fragile, king crab shells crack very easily and you have to be very gentle/ careful while handling them, whereas the smaller tanner species are not as fragile(still pretty fragile) and react faster.

so please bear all that in mind when thinking of ways to harvest said crab. then again giant magic crab could be insanely tough monstrosities and most of the above wouldn't apply but who knows, its your setting do as you will with it.

I figure gentle repose on the crabs is what keeps it fresh and tasty as it specifically indicates it stops decay. :)

And if giant crabs have a 15 AC with only a +2 bonus from dexterity it must be made of some tough stuff. That is as good as a chain shirt.

It is nice to hear from an expert though!